BESSEMER, Alabama - A Gardendale man is charged with child abuse after authorities say Wal-Mart surveillance video showed him hitting a child in the parking lot on Christmas Eve.

Bessemer police received multiple 911 calls about 4:45 p.m. Monday about a man abusing a child in the parking lot of the Academy Drive store. When they arrived, they found 22-year-old Brandon Roberts with three children, said Bessemer police Lt. Darron Hunter. The youngest child had a visible bruise on the forehead and the child had been crying.

While some of the police officers spoke with Roberts and the child's mother, who walked up during the situation, other officers went and reviewed the store's surveillance video. That video, Hunter said, showed the youngest child falling while walking to the car. Roberts then snatched up the child, held the child by the arm, and then hit the child several times, police said. When Roberts put the child down, the child fell again. Roberts picked up the child and hit the child on the back and the head, Hunter said.

Police arrested Roberts at the scene. He was charged with willful abuse of a child and booked into jail with bond set at $100,000. The other children were taken into protective custody.